Aquatic Ape Theory

Scott D. Kocher (skocher at itsmail1.hamilton.edu) wrote:
: Does anyone know about the Aquatic Ape Theory (AAT), which postulates
: that man descended from the apes only after undergoing a period of marine
: habitation? The theory attempts to explain why humans have oily skin and
: very few hairs, are bipedal, produce tears, breath through the nose, and
: some other strange adaptations which are unusual for terrestrial mammals.
: I came across the AAT home page on the Web, and was curious to know how
: legitimate this theory is for the rest of the scientific community.
Discussions of AAT show up periodically on any of the evolution-oriented
newsgroups (I understand Elaine Morgan, originator of the AAT, shows
up occasionally on some of them). You might try a Usenet search at
AltaVista (http://altavista.dec.com/) to find various replies.
I think the summary is that most professionals don't have a very positive
opinion of AAT.
Keith Robison
Harvard University
Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology
Department of Genetics
robison at mito.harvard.edu